Carp at Malheur are harbingers of starlings everywhere

The story published in The Nugget two weeks ago about the carp at Malheur NWR leaves one with the impression that the "Good Old Days" of birding at Malheur are gone forever. Not so for several species for several reasons - for now.

While the carp are a serious threat to the ecosystem of many waterfowl and aquatic species, many other birds are doing well - for now. The yellow-headed blackbird pictured here is just one of the hundreds of songbirds and shorebirds that are still alive and well on the refuge - for now.

(If you want to get a look at some very neat images of what can be seen at Malheur at this time, go to Kris Kristovich's Web site: http://www.kriskristovich.com. His latest selection from Malheur will knock your eyes out.)

The carp infestation is a wake-up call for everyone. In not too many years we're going to see this same phenomenon strike all of the West - not carp, but in the form of European starlings. When that happens, it will make the carp scare look like a kindergarten ghost story by comparison.

When starling (species name, vulgaris, meaning "very gregarious") populations reaches that of the size that impacted the aquatic ecosystem at Malheur Lake, it will be like the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and that's when the other birds of Malheur will begin to vanish.

Starlings are among the greatest imitators and competitors in the world of Nature. They are first-class copy cats, and it's that talent (to survive and compete) that will wipe out many of our indigenous species.

I have seen starlings perched in a tree close to a lawn in Sisters, watching robins foraging for worms and other invertebrates to feed their young. Within an hour, the starlings looked at each other and said, "Oh, that's how it's done..." and were on the lawn competing with robins.

Starlings watch woodpeckers foraging for insects in a forest blow-down, and by the end of the day the starlings are doing the same thing. Starlings have strong bills, similar to a woodpecker's, and are capable of tearing bark from dead and dying trees to extract the varied insects living there. Even worse, not only do they compete with woodpeckers for food, but they are obnoxious about stealing nesting cavities as

well.

The only methods I have found to protect the flicker nesting box in my backyard is to either shoot the starlings or place a large Victor rat trap in the bottom of the flicker box and trap them.

There was once a very unique little colony of Lewis' woodpeckers nesting in junipers on the banks of the Deschutes River below Tumalo. I watched the starlings drive those woodpeckers out, and in just two years, they were gone. All you can find nesting there today are starlings.

If a concerted effort had been made 30 years ago to remove starlings, when they were concentrated at the Knott Landfill in Bend, it might have been possible to control them. Now, they are out-of-control, and still no one is doing anything about them; their populations just keep growing and expanding into more and more sensitive wildlife habitat.

So, hang onto your hat, Oh, Best Beloved, like the carp that ruined the ecosystem of Malheur Lake, the starlings are going to ruin indigenous bird populations all over the West - but perhaps the Asian (collared) doves will do it first.